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Monday, October 17, 2016

Gingerbread Houses and Holiday Shopping at the Boston Christmas Festival

The Boston Christmas Festival is
a beloved shopping extravaganza held over a November weekend each year at the
Boston Seaport World Trade Center.

Celebrating its 30th season, this
year’s festival will be held Friday-Sunday, November 4th, 5th,
and 6th, 2016. Details

With a companion Gingerbread House Competition to
boot, we at New England Fall Events were intrigued to check it out first-hand.
As a fall event resource, we don’t usually attend many Christmas-focused events
but with more and more festivals extending their holiday season to include
November, this particular event lands squarely during our fall season.

It was our very first visit to the
Boston Christmas Festival. Though the gingerbread house competition is an
important feature of the festival experience, it’s the holiday shopping which
takes center stage and it constitutes about 95% of what you’ll see. The festival overall is neatly organized,
enormous, and a very enjoyable way to spend the day if you love Christmas,
enjoy shopping, and have a variety of people to shop for. The timing of the
3-day festival—typically the first weekend in November—is ideal for making a dent
in your holiday gift list early in the season.

Most of the vendors at the Boston Christmas Festival are fellow New Englanders. Though being New England-based is
not a requirement for vendors, the fact that most were locals really lent a
personal feel to a festival otherwise so large in scale. We met many New
England artisans—potters, woodworkers, craft makers, small batch food
producers—of every size and stripe. Beyond the festival, some vendors we met
had brick-and-mortar shops, others sold their goods online, and a handful sold
their wares exclusively at craft shows and festivals.

Before heading to the festival we
did a little research on their website. The Seaport World Trade Center is a
large expo hall situated in--you guessed it-- the Seaport District of Boston. With
an exit right off the Mass Pike, the seaport district itself is a snap to reach
via car and has plenty of open lot parking near the Trade Center. Like always,
parking in Boston is generally pricey; although there are numerous options in
this area, only one could be considered affordable--Necco Garage
(10 Necco St.). The Boston Christmas Festival website suggests pre-booking
across the street at “Lot 18” for $28.75. Without pre-booking the rates are $27
for 2-3 hours (not enough time to attend this festival) and $30 for 3-6 hours
which is a more realistic amount of time you’ll be there. The Necco Garage, by comparison, has a Saturday and Sunday flat rate of $5 (yes, you read
that right). The trade-off is the 12 minute walk from Necco to the Trade Center
which we felt was a minor sacrifice. (If you attend the festival on Friday,
Necco Garage’s rates are higher with a $21 daily max).

It’s worth noting that on the
Saturday we attended, there were LONG lines of cars just to get in to the open lots and covered garages
closest to the Trade Center so with your pre-booked rate or chosen lot
proximity, you also are treated to a traffic jam of everyone trying to park in
the same place. If you can hoof it from Necco Garage, do (and thank us
later for this insider tip).

We arrived right before the
festival began at 10:00am on Saturday. The admission is $15 for adults, kids 14
years and under come free. There were long lines to the box office for people
wanting to buy tickets. If you plan to use a $3-off coupon from the festival
website you’ve also landed yourself a spot in the long box office line since
you’ll need to redeem it in person. If buy your ticket online you’ll breeze
right through the doors and off you go. Our online ticket got us right in and
it was nice to get a head start on the show before the crowds built up.

To navigate the festival, pick up
a printed map from the box office lobby. The map lists all the booth numbers
and their corresponding vendors which is useful if you need to double back to a
booth or have a particular vendor in mind. More useful perhaps, is the map
clearly shows where the restrooms, concession snack bar, and ATMs are. There is
a coat check near the entrance of the hall and since the festival is large
enough to spend many hours browsing and shopping, it’s not a bad idea to check
coats to free you up for the day ahead.

Upon entering the show floor, the
smell of cinnamon candles was incredibly strong. For many, this scent evokes an
olfactory-driven nostalgia for a day of holiday shopping; but for those with fragrance
sensitivities, this may be genuine cause for concern.

At a glance, you’ll see hundreds
of vendor booths—over 350, in fact-- and ample shopping ground to cover.
Knowing we’d have a day full of browsing ahead of us, we decided to start our adventure
by visiting the gingerbread house display and competition.

The beneficiary of this baking competition,
other than the feast for our own eyes, is Housing
Families, Inc. a wonderful local
organization whose mission is to help homeless and at-risk families transition
into affordable housing, self-sufficiency, and stability. With youth and family
programs, pro bono legal services, and volunteer school tutors, and 400-600
families served, it’s wonderful to see this important group’s work showcased to
so many festival-goers and to receive the attention it deserves. During a
holiday season marked with so much commercialism, it’s a welcome reminder to
remember our fellow neighbors who need our support for securing the most basic
essential of a roof over one’s head.

The Gingerbread House Competition
is exhibited in the furthest corner of the expo hall which also has the
advantage of being set apart from the volume of shoppers. The entrants to the
gingerbread house competition are designed and constructed by local bakers and
top chefs. In addition to competing for the top prizes, the gingerbread houses
themselves are donations which are auctioned off to businesses who wish to
display these houses in their foyers and lobbies during the holiday season. The
recipient of the funds raised from the auction is Housing Families, Inc.

All in all there were about 10-11
houses in the 2015 exhibit. What the houses lacked in numbers, they made up for
in their quality, size, and craftsmanship. Many of these houses weren’t the
familiar “gingerbread, dripping icing, and candy” that we often think of;
instead they landed more in the hand-sculpted, fondant wrapped category, likely
because of the durability (and transport) requirement. Some, like the charming
row houses by Masonry Doctor, a
non-bakery submission which was one of our favorites, had hardly any visible
representation of actual brown gingerbread, as nearly every inch of the houses
were covered by piped icing and rock candy. Beverly’s Marino’s Café,
Burlington’s Café Escadrille, and Davio’s Chestnut Hill each contributed houses
with the iconic Snoopy resting on top of his dog house and all three were fully
iced from top to bottom.

One of the best representations
featuring classic baked gingerbread itself was the Make Way for Ducklings display
by Sweet
Things , recipient of the award for Most Creative. The renowned Flour Bakery submitted a quaint farm scene
complete with a red barn and Boston’s Blackbird Doughnuts’ log
cabin was crafted using a combination of pirouline rolled wafers, pretzels,
graham crackers, and fondant.

Cupcake City from Reading, MA received
the awards for “Best Tasting” and “Best in Show” with their stunning pastel
candyland representation of “Whoville” from How
the Grinch Stole Christmas. CitiPerforming
Arts Center and Brookline’s Party
Favors teamed up for a house and in the process earned honors for “Best
Decoration” with their Santa’s Workshop interior and Rudolph-themed outdoor
scene.

The largest gingerbread “house” could
be considered more of an elaborate display showcasing the work of Quincy’s Ginger Betty’s Bakery
complete with a Peanuts movie theme. Filled with gingerbread cookie Peanuts
characters, this display featured an Eiffel Tower, a stage, Snoopy’s dog house,
and layers of smaller details like music notes, trees, and a piano. Ginger
Betty’s also occupied the only vendor booth in this area of the exhibit where
you could purchase gingersnaps, macaroons, gingerbread kits, as well as
decorated and undecorated gingerbread cookies from bite sized to cookies larger
than your own face. Ginger Betty’s also hosted a table where kids could
decorate their own gingerbread person.

The gingerbread display could be
browsed at a leisurely pace and fully enjoyed in about 20 minutes or less. We
observed that it was good etiquette to observe the houses several steps back
from the table so as not to crowd the display for others to see. The
gingerbread houses were very well done and certainly showed off the
professional skills of the capable bakers who created them. Despite the
polished final product, all the displays managed to retain the whimsy and magic
that a gingerbread house should
convey. Personally we would LOVE to see more entries into this competition as
it is not limited to professional bakers and is a wonderful project to take
on—and your donation is to a very worthy cause.

The deadline for entry is in
mid-October (no fee) and the house needs to be delivered on Friday morning of
the festival for the judging and auction. There are limited rules for the
gingerbread house entries—the house base must be 4’x4’ or smaller, and the
house must be “sturdy and glazed” to ensure its durability to travel to its
final post-competition location and to sustain 6-8 weeks of display. Find
the entry form here.

With the gingerbread houses under
our belt, we moved on to explore the rest, and majority, of the Boston
Christmas Festival—the shopping.

The shopping expo fills every
corner of the Trade Center hall and eight aisles of vendor booths are split
down the middle with a “Farmer’s Market” which is the aisle dedicated to
food-centric vendors. The booths are marked with numbers, some more prominently
than others, which is helpful if you rely on the map guide to find a certain
vendor or to return to one previously visited.

Jingle Nog Glass Ornaments on display

We browsed booths aisle by aisle
working our way from one end of the hall to the other. The sheer volume and
variety of vendor booths is staggering. As frequent festival attendees
ourselves, we know our way around craft and retail vendor booths from the
largest fairs (The Big E) to much smaller gatherings. The Boston Christmas Festival holds the distinction for us of having not just the greatest variety
of products but they are generally high quality and interesting items. We later
learned that the vendors booths are approved based on “quality, originality and
professionalism” and we’d concur that the vendors we saw really do fit that
bill. As a significant number of festival
vendors draw from local makers and artisans in the Northeast, in many cases we
also met the artists and crafters themselves or the owners of these small
mom-and-pop start-ups. Though a number of the vendors are at the festival
representing their brick-and-mortar shops, there is a strong representation
from web-based businesses and Etsy online stores.

The Christmas Festival booths
really run the gamut in terms of what you’ll find. Being November, there are
many booths featuring items and accessories to help one endure cold-weather
months. Expect to find countless infinity scarves, cozy socks, mittens, alpaca
slippers, fleecy bathrobes, and knitted hats to choose from.

One of our
favorite vendors was Boxford, MA’s Twice as
Nice Mittens where we picked up a second pair of toasty mittens sewn from
recycled wool sweaters—we already own a pair and can attest to their reliable
warmth and fun-loving style.

Another standout at the festival
was Apiary Designs from
Providence, RI whose booth was a veritable beehive of customers all day long.
Apiary’s impeccably crafted aprons, zip bags, wristlet pouches, and catnip mats
made from high quality fabric in cheerful vintage prints and patterns were
flying off their racks. We couldn’t pass up snagging a new reindeer themed
apron for our upcoming Christmas baking.

Dave’s Woodshop's booth was host to a
stunning selection of scroll saw wooden baskets, trivets, and clocks. Cut from
a selection of different exotic woods, we couldn’t take our eyes off of his
handiwork. Since we bought a striking tigerwood basket for ourselves, we can
continue to enjoy Dave’s his skillful creation at home.

If the shopping aisles were busy
in the morning, by afternoon they’d reached the next level of congestion.
Teeming with people, the aisles grew more challenging to navigate and patience
is absolutely essential. For shoppers with strollers in tow, it seemed
particularly difficult to get around the crowds and increasingly difficult to
steer into a small, busy booth to explore. Moreover, with shoppers wandering
crowded aisles with armfuls of handle bags, the bags proved somewhat hazardous
to the children sitting in strollers with the tops of their heads landing
regrettably at bag-height.

Beautiful shell trees and wreaths.

In the interest of time, we
window shopped all the non-food aisles making notes of which booths we planned
to revisit. Though it gave us an excellent overview of what the festival
offered, doubling back to buy gifts proved trickier than we’d anticipated due
to the increasing crowds. By the time we’d completed our return visits, we were
left thoroughly over-stimulated and exhausted. Knowing that the Christmas Festival offers such an extensive variety of booths and goodies, our advice
would be to make our purchases at the initial booth visit.

Muddy Mary's bloody mary "mud"
mixes were wrapped and ready to go.

The central aisle of the expo, dubbed
The Farmers’ Market, is where you’ll find the majority of the food booths. As
nearly every food vendor offers samples to taste, it’s also the busiest area of
the festival. For cooks, bakers, food lovers, and kitchen gadget hoarders on
your holiday list, you are sure to find something that will appeal. Many of the
booths also cater to shoppers by selling foodie box sets or gift basket
arrangements at several price points to simplify your holiday shopping. The
smartest vendors here know that having gift options already in attractive
packaging is a huge plus for shoppers. Even the bloody mary mix we bought from
Muddy Mary’s Gourmet came in a festive shiny red box with a bow—all wrapped in
advance for shoppers to grab and go.

L to R: Bags of Boonie Doon's delicious shortbread; Jarva Cakes sold in a jar; ready to cook soup mixes.

Physically there is a lot of
ground to cover in this giant expo hall. Those who find it challenging to be on
their feet for long stretches (on a concrete floor) or need frequent breaks may
want to consider how they’ll manage. There is “café seating” at two ends of the
large hall but nothing in between that can be easily accessed. The space is
wheelchair accessible but, as with stroller, you may find the aisles quite
crowded and it is a slow-going negotiation of space.

There are restrooms available in
the box office lobby and more restrooms are situated in the absolute rear of
the expo hall. The lobby bathrooms had long lines but the rear hall washrooms
were rarely crowded and lines moved swiftly. An interesting perk of the
bathroom is the display of lotions, hand sugar scrubs, soaps, and other goodies
for testing out. These samples are provided by a handful of the festival
vendors for attendees to sample and what a terrific idea! The ladies in the
bathroom seem to appreciate the chance forgo the standard bathroom pump soap so
they could try the goodies available on the counter. Moreover, the samples became
a conversation piece between strangers while managing to lift everyone’s energy
and spirit. Some vendors had smartly affixed a label to their sample to advise
us of their booth number to find the item for purchase. It is funny how
something so simple and small, left a huge impression on all of us.

We did see many families, lots of
mother-daughter shopping pairs, a fair amount of families with young children
in strollers, and a handful of families with preteens. We observed that some
families gave their preteens a budget/allowance for making their own purchases
and it seemed like a smart strategy for limiting persistent “can I get that?”
needling—especially with so many retail goodies vying for attention.

As you’ll be shopping for hours
at the festival, at some point you’re bound to get hungry. Snacking on samples
in the Farmers’ Market aisle isn’t going to fill your belly. The expo floor does
offer a snack bar where the lines can be long and the selection is slim—salads,
and simple wraps. There are café tables near the snack bar where you can sit
and eat your light fare but the tables don’t turnover as quickly as one would
expect—especially as it’s the only place at the festival to rest your feet during
hours of shopping.

It’s not a bad idea to pack your
own lunch if you plan to spend the full day at the festival and folks with
dietary concerns are encouraged to do just that. If you’d rather step out for lunch, it’s easy to grab a bite at one
of the local bistros within walking distance in the Seaport District--just be
sure to have your hand stamped by the ticket taker for re-admission later.

Though this was our first visit
to the Boston Christmas Festival and Gingerbread House Competition, it won’t be
our last. It was satisfying to get a head start on holiday shopping in early November
and with such variety of vendors, you can find gifts which are bound to appeal
to the most enigmatic of personalities or of very particular interests. The
festival is well-organized and festival producers mount an impressive expo. Approximately
65% of the booths are repeat vendors and their prior experience at this
festival shows both in their efficiency and they seem to have their finger on
the pulse of the kinds of gifts early-holiday shoppers may be looking for.

We appreciate the strong representation of New
England-based businesses, and the emphasis on hand-crafted and artisan
products. On the whole, the items being sold in the booths feel fresh and
interesting—not the all-too-familiar offerings we often see on the “craft
festival circuit.” Considering its size, there was a “personal touch” to this
festival, likely owing to the large number of local makers and small local businesses
vending here. In many cases, the person manning their booth is also the owner
or artisan which adds to the quality of customer service and makes each gift
purchase more meaningful knowing we are directly supporting our fellow New
England neighbors.

Top Tips for Attending the Boston Christmas Festival

Arrive when the doors open to get
a head start when the crowds are a bit lighter.

Buy your ticket in advance online.
This will save you from standing in line at the box office (which you’ll have
to do if you plan to redeem a coupon). For 2016, the online tickets have a
reduced price but they’ll come with a small processing fee. Online tickets are
the smartest way to go for this event.

Pack a lunch to eat at the
festival or to step out for a bite make a reservation at one of the local
bistros.

If you don’t mind a 12 minute
walk, park at the Necco Garage to take advantage of $5/day flat weekend
rate (Sat and Sun). Not only will you spare yourself the traffic jam from trying
to park in a lot closer to the Trade Center but you’ll have an extra $23-25 in
your pocket to shop with!

Plan to spend hours at the
festival. With over 350 vendors plus the gingerbread house exhibit, you can
easily spend 4-5 hours here, more if you like to browse slowly.

Every vendor we saw accepted
credit cards.

The show floor at the World Trade Center offers free
wi-fi which is handy.

If you wish to pack a snack in advance to tie you over there’s a 7-Eleven just outside the Trade Center’s entrance. If step out for lunch, there are many local bistros within walking distance of the Trade Center. in the Seaport District. Be sure to have your hand stamped by the ticket taker for re-admission.

The smell of cinnamon candles in the expo hall is incredibly strong. For those with fragrance sensitivities, this may be a challenging environment to spend time in.

It’s a challenge to navigate the
crowds with kiddos and it’s tricky to move strollers through the aisles and
into some booths. Kids in strollers seem to be especially exposed to shoppers’ handle
bags inadvertently bumping against their heads. Those wearing their babies in a
sling could move more freely but make no mistake, there are a lot of bodies all
in one place—especially by the afternoon.

There are diaper changing tables
in all of the women’s bathrooms.

If you are going with older
children or teens, consider giving them an allotted amount to spend at the
festival to limit incessant requests to buy buy buy all the great things they
see!